The Millenium Chronicles Episode 1: Progeny
by Mark 'Manix' Odell
Summary: Ten years after the end of ' Episode 3 Apocalypse Rising' of The Umbrella Chronicles by this author it seems an unwanted visitor's back...and is burning for vengeance against Leon, Claire, Chris and Jill.
1. Default Chapter

'I thought it ended with Burkitt. I thought my war was over. At last I felt I could look forward to a new life. How is it possible that the same guy has to go through the same thing again? It's been ten years since then. Ten whole years. 

But it's different now. Ten years does a lot to you. I love my wife, my sister (Sherry, who's now 23) and my kids. Steve and Ada are now ten years old, they go to school. That makes things even more dangerous than before. 

They say you should face your fear…well, I've got to now.

It's started again.'

- LEON S. KENNEDY

**A New beginning**

** **

Ten-year old Steven Kennedy stood by the main entrance of his school, watching the other kids walk out of the doors, giggling and talking in that way you usually associated with schoolchildren.

He sighed. Dad would be here to pick him up today, but he had to wait for his sister and his cousin first. His cousin, Hannah, was usually picked up by her dad – but he would be late home from work today. Hannah Valentine inherited her mother's fighting spirit and looks, but also her father's charisma – which could be seen as bad or good depending on your personality type. His best friend had gone home, now he was just waiting for Ada and Hannah. 

So here he now stood, leaning against the wall and scanning the crowds of children for the faces he was looking for.

"Hey! Steve!" 

He spun around, thinking it might be his sister – but no. It was Jack Stone, one of his friends.

"Steve! Looks like you need a lift, want one?"

Steve shook his head.

"Nah. My dad's coming, anyway I'm waiting for Ada and Hannah" 

Jack shrugged, and smiled.

"Okay. I guess we'll meet up over the Summer holidays at some point"

"Sure! I'll call!" 

Jack waved and walked out of the door. Steve sighed again, twice in as many minutes.

Steve clicked his tongue, and looked around again. Where were they?

His dad had always said that if he was ever worried, all he had to do was talk to him. Dad wasn't here yet, so…

"STEVEY!!" 

He recognised those tones. His face split into a grin as he turned around to see his twin sister, Ada, running towards him.

Ada was like a much younger version of her mother, high spirited, gentle and irrepressibly sweet. Steve had always been told he looked like his dad – but he wasn't sure if this was true or not.

He'd never looked himself up and down the mirror and thought to look for his father in him.

"Hey, Stevey! Nice of you to wait!" she said, running up to him and hugging him. He was surprised by that, but maybe it was because there was nobody else in this echoing hall. 

"Hey Ada, what's up?"

"It's just that schools out! Isn't it great?!" she asked, happily.

"Yeah!" he turned to Hannah "Hey, Han!" 

"Hey!" she replied, grinning.

"Is dad outside?" Ada asked, shouldering her backpack. 

Steve shouldered his own, and the trio walked out into the fresh, warm afternoon air.

"I don't know – I didn't check" he confessed.

Ada scanned the grassy courtyard of the school, saw the cars waiting outside and laughing girls and boys her own age and younger climbing into their parents cars.

Then, her face split into a grin.

Leon was leaning against a tree near the entrance, wearing a button up green shirt and black trousers. He was as young and handsome as he'd ever been, but there was something mature about him that people respected.

He turned to them, and smiled.

"Hey!" he shouted, spreading open his arms and walking towards them.

"DAD!" Steve and Ada yelled, and they broke into a run before colliding with their father, who caught them in both his arms, cackling like he was a boy again.

Hannah caught up with them, shaking her head but grinning nonetheless.

"How's dads little soldiers, huh?"

"We're fine, dad!" Ada replied, grinning.

"Just great!" Steve added.

Leon smiled, hugged them closer and turned to Hannah.

"Hannah! How're you?"

"Fine Leon!" Hannah replied.

"Hope you're dad's going to be home tonight in time for dinner – Claire's brewing up something special"

"He will!" Hannah said, cheerfully.

Still grinning, Leon let go of his kids.

"Okay, wanna go home?"

"Don't have to ask me twice!" Steve laughed. 

They climbed into the back of the brand new 4x4 Leon had bought as a family present. It was red and chrome, and according to Chris was 'one mutha of a mover' 

Leon climbed into the front seat, Steve, Ada and Hannah climbed into the back seat.

"Buckle up!" Leon cheerfully announced.

They did so, as did he. 

He twisted the key in the ignition, and in one single purr the engine roared into life. Leon whistled as he reversed the car slightly, put it into gear and drove off down the road. He had a every reason to be cheerful. His life, as he felt it was, was wonderful. He had a wife, two kids and two sisters. He also had a job – Captain Leon Kennedy – That sounded good to him. With a medal of valour to put on his mantelpiece, he had a lot to be proud of. He flexed his hands – One with five fingers, and one with only four. He'd got used to only having four fingers on his left hand, it'd taken a while for him to get his aim back with a weapon, but since he was right handed anyway it hadn't become an enormous problem. 

He'd been asked hundreds of times how he'd lost the finger. He'd had to conjure up some lie about being wounded in the line of duty. The more times he told it, the more it became second nature to say so, and he was almost prepared to believe it – despite knowing the horrible truth. But he'd put that behind him now. Thankfully, it was just another unpleasant memory, which he could quite easily forget. Despite the scars burned onto him more than ten years ago, he'd immersed himself in his new life to prevent himself thinking further about groaning zombies and mutant T Virus monsters – Which worked. To an extent. He was so used to doing his job, household chores and playing with his kids that memories of the T-Virus were lost on him.

He steered the car down the road, and took it carefully around the corner. He hadn't lost any of his roguish spirit though, Claire hadn't either- Something they were both glad about. Even with the constraints of family life, he had barely changed, personality wise. Older, wiser and possibly more mature – but Claire and him were permanently like flirting boyfriend and girlfriend, something which embarrassed Steve and Ada no end, but kept the zest in their love life.

He couldn't help but let slip a thin smile. He looked in the mirror, saw his two children and Hannah sitting there chatting – Steve was growing to look like him, even acting like him.

His daughter, he could see was beginning to look like her mother – beautiful and strong spirited. However, she did have a certain 'him' in her blood, something that wasn't obvious, but it was there on those nights he tucked her into bed. He was wondering if they were embarrassed he did that…but he shrugged. He'd stop when they told him to stop. 

Ada however was very much her mother's daughter.

He drove the car down the leafy avenue, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his face as he drove down the road.

Ah, life was good.

Claire pulled open the front door, and stepped in, putting the keys in her pocket. Her working day was over again at last. The editor of the paper had let her go early today, usually she wasn't home for another two hours. Leon had said that he was having his week break, so that would mean some time together.

She looked in the mirror, smiling at herself mischievously. Claire was still as beautiful as she'd ever been, hardly the working-mother she was nowadays. 

She thought of Sherry, and her smile faded slightly. She had slight misgivings about Sherry. Not that they were any less friends, but Sherry didn't have a job and neither was she doing very much when she was at home. Sherry had gone through University with flying colours, it had taken a while to get her back on her educational track but Sherry had worked surprisingly hard at it. For some reason lately, Sherry seemed somewhat apathetic about getting a job – Sherry was an attractive young woman, and she needed to be doing something to at least be earning her keep. Claire was surprised that Sherry didn't have a boyfriend or any intention to move.

It wasn't as if she wanted Sherry out of the house as soon as possible, but she could at least contribute to the fact that Leon and herself were supporting two children and their own lifestyle, and it was extra difficulty looking after Sherry too. Damn, she loved the girl, but…

She shook her head in bemusement. It was as if she'd never been a gun-toting freedom fighter. 

She went straight to the lounge, and dropped her stuff there, before removing her work jacket and placing it on a chair in the kitchen. It was a nice house, immaculate, luxurious enough for them yet simplistic.

She sighed happily, and went into the lounge to flop down in the couch. She stared up at the white ceiling, and thought happily of her kids.

They were all very careful about not mentioning Umbrella at the table in front of the kids, because that would just lead them to asking questions, which would lead them to asking about what dad had done before, Uncle Chris and their dad's four fingered hand – not to mention Jills'. Claire was surprised they hadn't put two and two together yet, but people frequently put two and two together to make five.

Umbrella was a forbidden subject – which they were fine with. All they wanted was just to live their life. Which they were doing well. Even the white and red logo of Umbrella had faded after ten years. 

Oh, the company was still around – pharmaceuticals were in the shops all the time, but nothing unusual ever occurred.

Life was good.

"Now we move onto subject 2A" Dr. Samuel Blackman said casually, walking down the corridor alongside the large glass window that separated him and the younger lab scientists, probably about early twenties, from the thing inside 'The Tank' as they called it at Umbrella's primary bio-weapons institute in Montana. Blackman himself was balding and wore glasses, and his rock steady hands and conscience in view of the subject in front of him was quite remarkable.

"Within a day of the introduction of the old style T-Virus, the subject looked like this" he pressed a button in a metal controller he had concealed in his palm, and on a screen to their left, a monochrome photo flashed up.

There was an audible gasp from the young men and women he was currently leading.

"As you can see the facial tissues of the subject have already deteriorated, and its epidermal layers are gradually breaking away, and a state of braindead-ness was reported as coming into being at this point"

"Uh…sir?" 

Blackman turned irritably.

"Yes?"

The question came from a young, edgy man with slicked black hair and glasses.

"I know this is hardly the time and place sir, but isn't it…I mean, aren't the effects somewhat…useless to our needs? Decomposition of the epidermal layers surely can't be a good thing" 

"Which is precisely the point I'm making" Blackman snapped, annoyed at the question that he was about to explain "That was the problem with the T-Virus – It was overwhelming for the human body, it's results on a human form merely decomposed the flesh, introduced a flesh-eating hunger and they were uncontrollable" 

The young scientists, all with notebooks, nodded in unison.

_Like schoolchildren _Blackman reflected _they hang on my every word_.

"So…Why is the G-Virus also inappropriate?" a young woman, whose name Blackman vaguely recalled to be Alice asked him, raising her hand.

"The G-Virus, if you have read your paperwork properly, was dreamed up by Dr. William Birkin in early 1996, but he didn't get a fully synthesised strain of G-Virus until sometime in September 1998. It had taken him years and years worth of research for him to begin work on it soon after he'd finished the T-Virus, but it had several base flaws. It was an immensely powerful virus, and its effects on a human were startling – But since the only human infected with it was Birkin himself, there were no further experiments, except on Angel Island which was destroyed in the summer of 1999. Its main flaws were that it was, in effect, almost too powerful. It is believed that Birkin killed well over one hundred people as a G-Monster, and fifty of those were Umbrella employees. It was uncontrollable, and it is probably just as well it was destroyed"

"So…what are doing right now?" the young man asked again. Blackman was starting to lose his patience with the young man.

"Learning from our mistakes" Blackman said, simply "I believe we can create a modified, controllable version of the T-Virus with rigorous experimentation – This project has been going on for about six months, but little progress has been made. With your contribution, maybe that can change"

The gaggle of young scientists looked at each other hopefully. They'd been waiting for this. For this break.

"So if you follow me – we can finish this little tour of mine, and we can get down to, shall we say, the 'nitty-gritty'?"

He strode on as confidently as if he was winning a war, and his subordinates followed him as if he was the parent and they were the adoring young.

Which, to an extent, they were.

Leon gently took Claire in his arms, and kissed her passionately on the mouth literally moments after stepping in through the door. 

"Hey there gorgeous" Leon said, softly "Miss me?"

"I was counting the seconds" Claire replied, grinning as she kissed Leon's upper lip.

They squeezed each other again, and Claire looked over Leon's shoulder, and let go of him.

"Hi sweeties!" she said brightly, her children hugging her hard and kissing them "Had a nice day?" 

"Pretty good, mom!" Steve replied.

"You too, Ady?"

Ady was the affectionate name given to Ada by Claire, and it had caught on, apart from Steve and Hannah who thought it was quite funny, and teased Ada about it.

"Yeah mom!" she was a little embarrassed that she'd said it in front of Hannah, whose face split into a grin.

"So Han? Hanging around here for a while, huh?" Claire asked her brothers only daughter.

"I think so – If it's okay with you?"

"It's fine with us!" Claire said, nodding to Leon, who nodded back, smiling.

"We're going upstairs now!" Steve said, Hannah and Ada hammering up the stairs with him. Claire and Leon watched them go. 

Claire shook her head, smiling.

"They grow up so fast, huh?"

Leon nodded.

"Doesn't seem that long ago since we were still cradling them in their baby clothes"

Claire laughed, softly.

"They've got a lot of independent spirit" 

Leon put his arms around his wife.

"They probably get it from their mother" he said, smiling.

"What about their father? When I try to get them to eat their greens, I get a petulant look I could only get from you – Stevey's turning into his dad"

Leon rolled his eyes, and took his wife into the lounge, where they flopped down together.

"Do you think…" she then cut off her own speech, not saying anything more.

"Think what?"

"Uh…nothing"

Leon looked Claire in her crystal clear eyes.

"What's bothering you, my love?"

"It's just…" Claire seemed a little uncomfortable "…Jill's clone, could she…"

"Claire, Jill's clone will not be coming back in a hurry. It's been ten years, either she's dead or been caught by the government or something"

"You sure?"

"Ever doubted me before?"

"Uh…" Claire said, comically.

Leon playfully punched her on the shoulder.

"Hey! Don't doubt me" Leon said, facing splitting into a grin.

"You sir, are very easy to doubt sometimes" she replied, grinning.

He pushed her onto her back on the sofa, and fell on top of her, kissing her on the lips as he went down on her.

"Steve…just a question"

Steve was sitting in his room, where they were all sitting and chatting.

The question had been posed from Hannah.

"Huh?"

"A question – about your dad"

Steve frowned a little.

"Fire away" he said.

"Have you ever wondered…why your dad has only four fingers on his left hand?"

Steve shook his head, a little disappointed at how tame the question was.

"Oh…He lost it when he was in a shootout with some thugs during a bank raid - Kinda cool, huh?"

"Well…" Hannah was being delicate, even hesitant "…My mom only has four fingers on her left hand too"

Ada leapt in front of Hannah, scaring the life out of her.

"Really? That's way weird!"

"No kidding!" Steve said "I mean, how can they have that same problem? It's too weird for words!"

"Right!" Hannah replied.

Steve leaned back. He was curious about that fact, he had actually found the story his dad had told him a little intangible, but the fact that Jill had exactly the same problem with her hand, and they were quite close anyway…that was kind of hard to swallow. 

The door creaked, and they turned around.

"Hey guys, what are you up to?"

Framed in the doorway was the slender and very pretty figure of Sherry. Sherry had grown into a woman perfectly, everything about her screamed 'Beauty'. Everybody was surprised she didn't have a boyfriend – Somehow, Leon had reckoned and had told the three kids on several occasions, that her non-boyfriend stance in her teenage years had something to do with it. 

"Nothing – Just talking, Sherry!"

She was supposedly their aunt, but she was so young and they were so used to her being in the same house they regarded her as more of a sister. 

"Just talking…"

She smiled in a teasing sort of way, and nudged Ada.

"Oh? Boys already?"

"Shuddup!" Ada replied.

"Excuse me!" Steve said.

"…And Steve? How about you? Girls?"

He wrinkled his nose.

"Nah"

"Thought not"

"That's rich – Coming from somebody who never goes out with boys!" Hannah pointed out, still grinning.

"Well excuse me!" Sherry said, with mock annoyance.

Sherry shook her head in bemusement. To think she'd once been like this.

# I see a bad moon rising

It was raining in Washington. It was also quite cold. At least that's how Private Will Allmond felt it, wearing only his combat fatigues and a rain-slick. He could feel the raindrops pitter-patter down on his slick, the rhythmic drumming giving him something approaching a headache. He looked out across the grassy hills, and over the long tarmac road that seemed to stretch into infinity. He didn't enjoy the view. In fact, he despised it now. But when you were on watch outside the inner gates, and most of the guards were either by the outer gates or inside as they should be, you kind of got fed up with the view after a while since you had little else to look out. But he was outside.

He sniffed, and grunted. He hated the cold air, especially when it was raining.

"Hey, Will?"

He turned, to see his counterpart and friend, Private Sam Leighton walking up, digging his hand in his pocket. He then pulled out a small oblong box.

"You want a cigarette?"

"Sure"

Allmond nodded, accepting one of his friend's cigarettes. He pushed it between his lips, and leaned over as Leighton lit the cigarette for him. He drew deeply, the glowing end flaring as he did so, and then he blew out a plume of smoke into the cold night air, the smoke immediately disappearing in the dark sky.

"It's frigging cold" Allmond muttered, smoke still filtering from his lips.

"No kidding, man" Leighton replied, squinting up into the darkened sky.

For a while there was nothing but the pitter-patter of rain on a concrete surface. There was the deep bass rumble of impatient thunderclouds, growling their annoyance at the earth.

Almond felt pissed off with the weather, it was like everything was aimed at him, as if the fury of god was always seething over his head. He wasn't dazzled by the beauty of lightning flashes, he saw them as huge electrical disturbances which were nothing but a damned nuisance.

There was a rustle from the shadows cast by the walls of the inner compound. A strange hiss of air…his ears pricked up.

He looked at Leighton, and made a hand gesture which said 'Possible suspect nearby – Investigate'

But Leighton didn't react. Instead, he stared straight ahead at Allmond.

"Sam?" Allmond whispered.

Leighton's body fell on him heavily, Allmond catching his form as the body knocked him off balance. As Allmond looked, he could see a small, barbed dart sticking in his friend's neck. Leighton was rapidly turning blue, Allmond could feel the first symptoms of panic perforate his body.

_How the f…?_

Then, a foot cracked heavily into his jaw, and as screamed out at the dizzying pain he now felt, he looked up at his assailant. He felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed to his forehead…and then nothing more, as Will Allmond's brain took the full onslaught of the bullet from a Beretta 92F.

The resulting mess was mixed with the rain, the sickening concoction sliding across the tarmac road, forced on by the wind whipping the rain across the landscape.

Within five minutes, the killer was inside. The killer was easily able to override the inner-lab security systems; who, after all, couldn't hack a US government security job? 

An unfortunate young man named Dr. Jeremy Bentley was enjoying a quiet evening in the main staff room, sipping a cup of amiably warm coffee and listening to Berlioz's Te Deum on the classical radio channel, when the head of security stormed into the room to ask what the hell was happening.

"Some asshole's broken inside the inner lab" he growled "And you're just sitting there?"

"I'm moving, god-damnit!" Bentley snapped, standing up and kicking his chair away.

Both of them walked out in the corridor, but quickly.

"When did this occur?" Bentley asked.

"About ten minutes ago" the head of security explained "The first patrol found the bodies of Privates Allmond and Leighton and informed me directly"

There was a flurry of activity, and in the next few seconds Bentley suddenly found himself on the floor, pinned down by a solid boot. The security chief pulled out his Beretta, but the killer reacted first.

The Security chief sank onto the floor, clutching his chest, where a hunting knife was now buried up to the hilt, blood dripping onto the floor.

Bentley gasped, and nearly screamed as he saw the blood. He was slightly squeamish.

"Right" the killer said "If you want to stay alive, then take me to your inner lab. There's a piece of equipment I want"

Bentley nodded. As well as he could with a pistol ready to blow the inside of his head out between his teeth. The voice was quite a smooth female one, quite sexy he would have thought was he not so terrified of the fact that this woman had a gun barrel pushed firmly into his mouth.

The woman hauled him up by the hair, and with her gun placed firmly to his temple now, dragged him down the corridor.

"Holy shit!"

The three security guards in charge of the main lab doors witnessed the spectacle ofblack clad figure dragging the esteemed Dr. Bentley down the corridor practically by his ear.

One of the guards turned to one of his compatriots.

"Uh…what do we do?"

"I dunno!" the man replied, shaking his head, unable to take his eyes off the pair.

The figure came up close, so close that they could work the figure out to be female.

"Open the door" she said darkly "Or Dr…" she checked his tag "…Jeremy here will be wearing a new fashion accessory – his brains, on the outside"

"I can open the outer door" one of the guards spat "But you can't open the inner door, only one of the senior scientists can open that one"

The woman cocked her head.

"Really? And are you saying that Jeremy here isn't? Huh?"

The third security guard sweated. They all knew that Dr. Bentley was head of their division, and therefore counted as a senior scientist.

The first guard made a move for his gun.

The woman shot him in the leg.

"Now…" she hissed, the gasping guard sagging onto his bleeding leg "I think you're well aware of what I'll do if you even think of touching the barrel of your sidearm. And just to be safe, take them out and give them to me"

They obeyed, for some reason. 

"Face the wall" she said "I would kill you, but to tell the truth, I've got a migraine and when I've got a migraine gun shots really kill my head…so think yourselves lucky, boys"

They faced the wall.

"Apart from you" she indicated guard number two "You open the door, and I'll drag Jeremy here through to the inner chamber, where we'll unlock it. Touch the alarm? I will kill you. Try to shut me in? I wouldn't bother, since I've still got good old Jeremy here to kill too"

The guards could tell from her voice that she was insane, but in an icy cold way, an icy, calm madness that was not in the mood for bluffing. 

The outer door opened with a hiss, and the whimpering Bentley was dragged into the bitterly cold anti-chamber.

"Open it" she said, pulling out a Desert Eagle .50 which she pointed out at the door, the Beretta pressed into Bentley's back.

_Retinal Scan, ID code…_ Bentley thought in a panic, going through the procedure he knew so well.

"Ah, well done Jeremy, you've added an extra minute to your life"

The woman dragged him into the chamber. It was sterile and white, but somehow she knew what she was looking for. He looked at her as she pulled him across to a closed glass cabinet, which she shattered with her elbow.

"At last…" she muttered "I've got it"

He looked up with frightened eyes, and saw her handle what he termed Prototype 5B. _What the hell did she want with that?_

Within moments, she'd grabbed him by the ear, and was dragging him out of the chamber again. In the corridor, she pulled him in front of her, face to face with her.

"Now I'm going to leave you here…well done"

He exhaled in relief.

"I'm not going to kill you" she said sweetly "So feel lucky"

He felt his body relax a little. She traced her Beretta down his body.

"Instead" she said, pulling the trigger "I'll cripple you for life"

The bullet was expertly shot. It severed the most important nerve in his leg completely. Never again would he be able to use it. Bentley screamed in agony as she dropped him unceremoniously on the floor, walking away as if he was a piece of garbage she'd dumped.

He looked at her, through a lens of pain…before he passed out.

Half an hour later, the woman stood on the outskirts of the base, hidden behind a tree. She sighed happily, grasping the cloth of her balaclava, and tugging it up over her soft feminine features. 

It was Jill Valentine.

Except it wasn't.

She looked at the device she'd filched from the lab with a minimum of fuss. It had been easier than she'd thought. Government security was so lax these days. She examined its stainless steel exterior. At last, the final component she needed. Jill II smiled, coldly as she thought about what it would be part of when she got back.

It had been…ten years? Yes, something like that. She was itching to see her lover again…her dear brother, Leon II. Whose child she had carried for nine months, and then had brought the child kicking and screaming into the world.

She'd looked after her son. He'd grown quickly. Their genetic makeup had forced him to the age of eighteen within ten years, his mind developing at an impressive rate. His body had since slowed down…but their collective hatred for the original Leon and his wife, and Chris Redfield and her own original had been kindled to fury.

_Itching for revenge…_

She smiled strangely, looking over the dark, rain savaged countryside.

___Look who's back in town, boys and girls…_

END OF PART 1

Authors note: It's BACK!! I said the sequel would come, and here it is! I'll be working on this as well as Scorched Earth, Savage Skies…so watch out!!

PS If you don't understand the 'Leon II' and 'Jill II' thing, read 'The Umbrella Chronicles' if you haven't read it already, and make note of the events of 'Apocalypse Rising' Read those, and understand this.

See you all!


	2. Umbrella Rising

Family, interrupted

Family, interrupted

** **

Leon sat in the back garden, gazing across the sun-dappled patio of the back garden, across the fresh green grass of the lawn. He saw his children playing in the garden, leaping around a furiously spinning sprinkler, lightly spraying the air with water that caught the rays of the sun, making it explode in a rainbow of colour that rippled in the water spray.

He smiled. So peaceful. Once upon a time, it wasn't like this. Once upon a time they fought for their lives, just to prevent Umbrella from getting to them. Once upon a time they'd been living in dirty, filthy hotels just so that they didn't arouse Umbrella's suspicions. 

Leon felt satisfied with his life now, something he could live for and know that the next day he could wake up without having to fear for the life of his wife and children.

"Dad?"

Leon twisted his head to the right, to see his pretty young daughter standing barefoot in the patio in swimsuit, wet feet creating faint prints on the tiles. 

_When she grow up…_ he thought _She's going to lookjust like her mother_. She did indeed have Claire's hair, and despite her chubby childishness was obviously going to evolve into something the boys would go crazy for. Leon nearly flushed with pride. But…she wasn't totally Claire. Yes, his eyes were there alright…and maybe…her ears…

He waved the thought away. It was irrelevant.

He smiled, and pulled off his shades, folding them up and then setting them neatly on the bright blue towel beside him.

"Yeah, hon?"

She strolled up, sitting softly on his knee. He'd done this many times before, when she was a tiny baby with a penchant for wetting herself, a squeaking toddler who loved being cuddled and bouncing on his knee, giggling incessantly.

Now she was ten. And she still loved being cuddled.

"Can you…"

Ada faltered, the droning sounds of the bees and of Hannah and Steve playing in the water sprinkler, and the sounds of the spray lightly dusting the leaves of the bushes just entering her hearing range. Amidst the quiet sounds of nature, a lawnmower growling its anger at a particularly resistant lawn and Steve and Ada's tinkling laughter filling the air…she wondered if everybody was listening.

"Yes, sweetie?" 

She'd been building up a lot of courage to ask this, and now she felt ready. But could she? How could she ask her own father how he really lost his fifth finger on his left hand when he'd already told her. Steve, Hannah and Ada had drawn straws to decide who'd ask. Unfortunately, she was the one who'd taken the short one.

"Um…we…well I…"

Her dad looked at her with intense blue eyes.

"Yes?" he asked softly "Is it something embarrassing?"

She mentally deduced some points from her total score so far, fumbling with her words was not a good sign, and her dad was beginning to get worried about her.

"Dad…you see…we want to know…" she took a breath, screwing up her courage as she took the breath "How did you really lose your finger?"  
Leon didn't stop smiling, but Ada could see that in her father's eyes there was just a tiny spark…something…like an unpleasant memory?

"I've told you haven't I? I lost it when I went to the bank and some robbers hurt me bad"

Leon didn't feel too good about babying up the truth, if that's what it now was, to his daughter, but he couldn't tell her how it really happened. How the clone of himself, the maniac that he was neatly sliced it off more than a decade ago, in a secret base in the mountainous region above the town of Burkitt.

Leon had done some research about a year ago about what had happened to Burkitt. Apparently, the radiation had died down sufficiently for a town to be rebuilt. The new town was called Coopers Hatch, and was steadily growing. How well history hid the scars of the past. The T-Virus had burned out, and all the zombies were dead and gone…thank god.

"Well dad…" she said, sitting in her dads lap and looking up into his eyes with the same eyes he possessed "…Aunt Jill's got the same finger missing on her left hand too"

Leon tried not to panic. Had they worked it out? While the fact wasn't exactly obscure, this was one step toward an unpleasant truth he'd been carefully burying for many years, trying to hide under years of playing the good man with an uninteresting past.

"Ada…" Leon wasn't sure how to answer the question "I know that we don't keep any secrets from each other, but I can tell you that there's nothing special about it. It's called a coincidence"

Ada knew the word, and what it meant, but despite the slightly patronizing tone he'd used, she realized it was like that for more than one reason. Something he was embarrassed or uncomfortable to talk about? 

She frowned inwardly. What could be so uncomfortable he didn't want to talk about with his own daughter?

Leon gently pushed her off his knee, and with a sweet smile on his face.

"Go on. Have a good time, and don't bother yourself with silly things like that, okay?"

Ada was about to open her mouth, but she knew that pushing her dad wouldn't work. It'd probably just annoy him.

She nodded.

"Okay daddy"

He smiled, and stepped into the house through the French doors. Ada watched him disappear into the shade of the house, and then walked back to the other two.

In the kitchen, Claire turned to see Leon come in.

"Mm…hey there Leon" she said, sultrily, allowing his arms to encircle her as he kissed her.

"Hey baby" he replied, kissing her gently on her upper lip.

As she clung to him, she looked him in the eyes. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Something worrying you?"

"Well…" Leon seemed indecisive "Yeah…"

"What is it?"

Leon gently squeezed Claire.

"Ada started asking questions about my hand again" 

Claire nodded, understanding.

"I see"

"Sometimes" Leon began "I think I should just tell them, but…how could I? I couldn't tell them what really happened all those years ago…" 

"Don't worry…you're right. We elected not to tell them for precisely those reasons, we don't want them getting involved in anything they shouldn't"

There was the familiar monotonal _ding-dong _from the door.

"I'll get it" Leon said, letting go of Claire and walking to the door.

Claire grinned, mischievously.

"Only in those?"

Leon realized he was only wearing swim-shorts.

"Yeah…well why not? Scare the ladies collecting for charity, huh?"

He cackled as he ducked the shirt thrown in his general direction, winked at his wife and then ran to the door, grabbing the white T-Shirt as he did.

Leon pulled at the handle, and pulled open the door.

"Hey!" Leon said, grinning.

"Just coming to see if our daughter was in?" Chris said, arm around Jill.

Chris was dressed in a T-shirt, combat trousers, a pair of shades and a huge monkey grin. He was older, but certainly no more mature than he'd ever been. Hannah had her mother's looks, her hair was even the same, but certainly owed more to her dad in more than just personality. Jill was as beautiful as ever, more tanned than usual, wearing a blue T-shirt atop a black skirt down to about knee length. They dressed more maturely when they had to, but when they didn't have to, on occasions such as this one, they contrived to look as immature as possible. 

"She certainly is" Leon thumbed over his shoulder "In the back garden, with Steve and Ada"

"As usual" Jill laughed "We came to pick her up"

Leon drew in his breath.

"Ooh I don't know about that…" he said mysteriously "She might not like that…"

Chris and Jill rolled their eyes, lips stretched into grins.

He allowed the couple in, closing the door and then calling

"Hey Claire! Your brother's here! I think he's hungry!" 

Chris playfully punched Leon on the shoulder. 

"Watch it!" Chris warned, jokingly.

As Chris and Jill walked through, Claire stopped eating her sandwich, and turned to see her brother and his wife walk into the sitting room. She leaned on her hip, looking bemused.

"So…here to collect the mutual daughter, huh?" she asked.

"Yup" Jill said, smiling "Although it looks like she's having a pretty good time right now" she observed her daughter tackling Steve on the ground, both laughing as she ground his back into the grass.

Claire snapped her fingers.

"Tell you what" she said "Why don't you hang around, we have a barbecue or something this evening, and then you take Hannah home afterwards?"

Chris and Jill nodded, their faces showing they were enthusiastic at the idea.

"Sure!" Chris said "It'll make a change!"

Jill gave Chris a playful glare.

"Oh, so what we eat at home isn't good enough, huh?"

Chris grinned, and squeezed his wife.

"Please" Jill said, trying not to laugh "That'd be great"

Leon leaned against the wall.

"Why don't I tell them? Sure they'd love to hear that" Leon said.

"Okay then" Claire said "Go then!" she said the second part of her statement in a comical, over-the-top way. Leon grinned, winked again and walked out into the hot afternoon sun.

The operation room was clean, white and silent, apart from the laboured breathing of what the surgeons knew to be 'Xp. D1' lying like a discarded sack of flesh on the operating table. 

Blackman stood at the glass window, clipboard ever ready in his hand as he observed the three blue clad surgeons on the inside of the chamber standing tentatively above the decomposing body.

Blackman pulled out a Biro with a warped tip, and casually scribbled down 

'Decomposition evident…'

The first surgeon looked through the glass at Blackman, eyes safely protected in standard issue plastic goggles, mouth covered by a disposable mask. 

"Would you like us to begin, Dr. Blackman?" 

"If you would be so kind, Janusz" Blackman said, clicking off his biro and settling down to watch the dissection. Incisions…the first surgeon took a scalpel to the creature, sawing it gently through blackening, rotting flesh and into the skull with a papery crunch. One of the surgeons looked disgusted, but his feelings of nausea were ill contained as he turned slightly pale.

"Jeez, that is sick…" the man said, watching as the ever professional Janusz carefully carved up the creature's head.

"Anything new?" Blackman asked.

"Not much…" Janusz admitted "Although the virus has had little impact on its main sensory motor functions, I think the virus has actually controlled the parts of the brain we predicted it may"

Blackman beamed in triumph.

_I was right _he thought _I was right after all! Now if only that…_

He tried to think of her name. That freelance operative, called herself Miss. DuJill or something…when she was able to provide him with the last piece of equipment he needed to be able to further his research then he'd be on the verge of a scientific breakthrough. A controlled virus…not a wild, uncontrollable virus that did whatever it want but a real, live-

"AAAARGH!"

Blackman was snatched out of thoughts by the blood-curdling scream. It came from within the operating theatre, where the surgeons were backing away from the corpse…that was sitting up, unspeakable fluids drooling from its dissected brain. It opened its dissolving mouth, showing rows of jagged, horrible teeth and greyish drool that leaked from the corners of its mouth.

Blackman shouted

"Just kill the damned thing!!"

Janusz nodded, fearfully, and pulled out a Beretta that it was now ordered for all Neo-Umbrella employees to own, and fired three shots at point blank range into the creatures skull, every thundering shot smacking hard into its flesh, spraying blood across onto the window, the scarlet fluid dribbling down the window. Blackman's face creased in disgust, the blood masking his view. The creature moaned a horrible death cry before it collapsed on its back, finally dead.

Blackman breathed. Oh well, at least the subject was no longer troublesome. He went back to his previous thoughts. Yes…and those young people who were the old Umbrella's enemies…they were going to have a little attention paid to them too… 

It was a warm evening, with a sweet warm breeze just to make the evening perfect for them. Leon gently swirled his champagne in his glass, the liquid gently lapping the crystal glass insides. He was standing on the back porch, looking up at the stars. He did this rather a lot, he realized, perhaps it all went back to the time when he first fell in love with Claire. He sipped the drink a little, to savor its sweet taste.

It tasted good. He heard soft footsteps, to see his beautiful wife approach him. 

"Hey" he said, slipping his arm around her, and kissing her softly on the cheek.

"Hey" she replied, leaning gently on his shoulder "…I love it when it's peaceful"

"Me too" he said, and looked into her eyes.

They smiled, and kissed her. There was a disgusted noise from inside, and the married couple turned to see both Steve and Hannah on the doorstep.

"Mom, dad…could you PLEASE cut out the kissing?" Steve asked, in a manner too mature for his age.

Claire raised an eyebrow.

"Stevey…your father and I are enjoying a few moments together" she said, hugging Leon hard.

"Uch…" Steve said, folding his arms and wrinkling his nose.

There was a sudden loud knock on the door. Leon rolled his eyes theatrically.

"I'll get it" he said, and walked back inside to where Jill, Chris and Sherry were still talking over their champagne.

Leon went to the door, a little annoyed that somebody was calling on them at this time, especially since they were having such a good evening. Leon pulled open the door, to see a familiar face.

The face in question was bearded, slightly grey and aged since Leon had last seen it, but he was looking younger than most men of his age. The man smiled.

"Hey there" Barry said, in his deep voice "Remember me?"

"How couldn't we, old guy?" Leon said, patting him on the shoulder "Good to see ya! Come on in!"

"Thanks" Barry replied, smiling broadly as he stepped inside.

Leon led Barry into the sitting room, where everybody else was sitting and talking. As soon as they saw Barry, they leapt to their feet in a frenzy of 'Is that you?' and 'My god, it's Barry!', his arrival having the same effect of surprise and delight on everybody in the room.

"Hey there everybody" Barry boomed, Chris running up and shaking his hand vigorously.

"Barry" Chris said, grinning "You just don't die, do you?"

"Nah" Barry replied "Body won't let me"

"Well" Chris said "Sit down, have a drink and tell us what you've been up to lately"  
"Hey Barry!" Steve said.

"Hiya Barry!" Ada replied, waving a little.

"Hello Barry!" Hannah chirped up.

Barry turned to the kids, smiling kindly.

"Hey kids! Being good are you?"

"Yessir" they said in unison.

"Having fun now the holidays have started?"

"Yessir!" they replied, with more enthusiasm.

"Good!" he said "Glad to hear it"

Barry turned to Chris.

"Actually, I'm here for a reason" he said, a little more seriously "But I'll explain once the kids have gone to bed"

"Aww…" Steve complained, and folded his arms in a dead sulk.

"Speaking of bedtime" Claire said, sweetly "I think it's time Steve and Ada got ready for bed"

"What about me?" Hannah asked.

Leon smiled brightly.

"You can stay over if you want to" he announced, cheerfully.

Steve and Ada's faces lit up, as did Hannah's.

"Can she?" they asked, in unison.

"It's fine with me" Leon said, and turned to Jill "How about you?"

Jill nodded, smiling.

"Sure she can. I'll drive back and grab your pyjamas, sleeping bag and washbag…." Jill waved her finger at her daughter.

"But go to sleep when Uncle Leon and Auntie Claire tell you to, okay?"

Hannah nodded.

"I will, mom"

"Then we'll drop her off tomorrow morning" Leon added.

Steve, Ada and Hannah scampered up the stairs, giggling and talking as they disappeared into their room.

Barry watched them go, and lowered his voice.

"Jill, you get Hannah's stuff. We'll wait for you in the dining room"

Jill nodded, confused, and grabbed her keys, heading for the door, still confused as to what the hell was going on.

Soon, they were all seated around the table, almost as conspiratorially as they had done when they were still Umbrella's public enemy number one. Except that this time, Sherry was somewhat taller. 

The table had a red tablecloth, the table itself quite sturdy, oak and quite decorative around the edges.

Jill twiddled her thumbs as Barry pulled out a sheaf of papers, and with a loudTHUMP, dropped them on the tabletop.

The collective group of eyes stared at the meaningless pile of paper, blankly.

"This…is what?" Leon asked, flatly.

"What I've gathered" Barry replied "Over the last year this is my research"

Claire raised an eyebrow as she grasped a volume of paper that was thicker than most encyclopaedias they knew of, and looked it over quizzically.

"I haven't got seven or eight hours of reading time to go through this" Chris said, coolly "What is it we have to know?"

"Take a look at the brief sheets with the photos and other reports – It sums everything up"

Leon took one of the brief papers, and eyed it critically. Written in the first paragraph was:

'…through the destruction of White Umbrella, Neo-Umbrella rises like a phoenix. Our group is now rising in power, research has continued unperturbed for seven years since the town of Burkitt was destroyed with much of White Umbrella and its administration…'

Leon didn't need to read anymore. He let go of the sheet, it drifting down onto the polished wooden tabletop, almost sadly.

Leon's hand was shaking. He looked deathly pale.

"What is it?" Claire asked, placing one warm hand on his. The sheet was passed around as Leon spoke.

"Somehow…" he muttered "…I just knew it wasn't over. Things never end as easily as that"

"No shit" Chris said, shaking his head after reading the brief.

"How can they still exist?" Jill asked, as Claire read the paper. Her hand crumpled it, her face creased in shock.

"Yeah, how?" Sherry asked, puzzled. 

"I don't know" Barry said "But that's not the worst of it" 

He pulled out a photo and tossed it to Leon. Everybody bent over to peer at it. It was a slightly blurry black and white photo, a security camera photo. The picture was of a control room, modern, utilitarian looking. It looked eerily familiar. On the floor lay a body. It looked like Leon, but Leon was standing across the room with a knife in hand, Claire on his arm. Jill too was there…one by Chris and a still twelve-year old Sherry, the other by the dying figure on the floor.

"That's…" Claire said "…that's…"

"Precisely. A security photo from the Burkitt Umbrella base, ten years ago almost to the day"

"Our last confrontation with Umbrella…" Jill murmured "…when we fought Leon and mines clones"

Leon looked up.

"Why are you showing me this?" he asked.

"This photo" Barry said, solemnly removing another photo and tossing it to Leon "Was taken two days ago. A contact dug it out for me"

They all stared at the photo. A crisper picture of course, but it was from the wall of a base, a view of a tree. Standing in the photo was a figure who looked all too familiar. Her face, as cold as ever created a droplet of fear and resentment that spread through their collective being like a cancer.

Jill II.

"She's back" Leon said at last, when the silence had almost become piercing "The bitch is back to bite us"

"She didn't die" Jill said, hand on her forehead "She didn't. I just knew that she'd come back some day" 

"We weren't prepared then" Chris said determinedly, holding his wife close "But we are now"

Leon looked up.

"What about the kids?" he asked "Ada, Steve and Hannah? What are we going to do with them? If Neo-Umbrella or whatever they're called are trying to find us then they'll go for the kids…like last time"

They all nodded, Claire and Leon squeezed each other. They remembered their hellish voyage into Finzustown to rescue Steve and Ada when they were babies, how distressed and anguished they'd felt when they were gone. Leon squeezed Claire's hand.

"It's not going to happen again" he spat, in contempt of Umbrella "I won't let it. I will not disappear quietly into the night, I will not run, I will not hide. This time, I'm going to protect my children if it's the last thing I do"

"I'll fight with you" Claire whispered, holding her husband tight.

Leon held onto her.

"Let's wait for them to come to us" he said "And we'll show them"

Chris folded his arms.

"I say we keep the kids with us at all times now. If we're to protect them, we can't send them away. I know they'll be in danger with us, but with anybody else they'll be in even more danger"

Their discussions continued long into the night, over what should be done.

"I say we skip town for a few weeks, lie low, something like that" Chris suggested.

"They don't even know where we are now" Leon pointed out "I felt that that should give us an advantage"

"We've got to lead the conflict away from town" Jill said "I think Chris is right. But the question is where"

"Hmm…" Claire scratched her head "…there is that place in that lake on near the Washington state coast, that me and Leon bought a while back…"

Chris and Jill stared at her.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Chris asked.

"It was going to be a surprise to the kids, so we didn't tell you either…hell, we only bought it two weeks ago"

"Okay then" Jill said "That sounds like the best place, although I think we'd like to know what it is first"

"A cabin, which we made sure could accommodate extra visitors. We paid a visit to it a little while ago, to give it a check" Leon said "I can assure you there's enough for eight people"

Chris slapped a hand on the table.

"I guess we've got our destination then!"

Outside the doorway, a small pair of feet slowly crept upstairs, unnoticed by the rest of the adults.

"What do you mean, we're all going away?" Ada asked, as the new generation of Redfield's and Kennedy's settled down to discuss what they had heard.

"That's what I heard" Steve whispered "Apparently, there's this big company after our mom and dad and your mom and dad too"

"Really?" Hannah replied, in an inquisitive and almost excited tone.

"Yeah, and we're going on holiday to…lie low or something like that"

Ada looked a bit pale.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked.

"The thought…" she murmured "…It's scary. I mean, what if dad and mom are in trouble?"

Hannah shrugged. She had a tendency to breeze things off, very much like her father.

"I don't think anything that doesn't point a gun in your face isn't of any immediate danger" she said, nonchalantly.

Ada and Steve stared at her in disbelief.

"Well, that's what dad says" Hannah explained.

"What other kinds of things does he say like that?" Steve asked.

"Oh, 'live on the edge, that's the best way to do it; take things as they come'"

"No comment" Ada muttered.

"Well, if they are in danger…" Steve said "We've gotta protect 'em, right?"

"Right" Hannah said.

Ada felt more cautious, however.

"Yeah, but we've got to look out; for now, let's play dumb and pretend we haven't heard anything, okay?"

The other two nodded.

"Right"


	3. A Shadow of the Past

Beautiful Night on the Lake 

 Steve Kennedy stared out of the window of the car, as the powerful 4x4 roared down the dirt road towards their destination, the road bumping slightly as they rounded the lake, which was as smooth as glass and as shiny as said material. 

      He couldn't understand why his mom and dad were in such a panic; their packing had seemed pretty rushed, his parents had looked forcedly happy about the whole affair, his mom telling him 'It's gonna be great, it's us, your cousin and your aunt and uncle!'

    He stared at the moon, its luminous glow casting a cool white light on the lakes still surface, Steve found himself transfixed by it.

       "Stevey…" his sister muttered "…what time is it?"

      He yawned, suddenly realising how tired he felt.

       "…mm, what? I dunno…" 

    He leaned towards the front, where Leon drove with determination, Claire lying back in her seat. They were occasionally exchanging words, but they appeared restless.

      "Mom, what time is it?" Steve asked, rubbing his eyes.

      Claire let her eyes slide down towards the dashboard, saw the twenty-four hour clock glow green in the darkness of the car.

        "Ten thirty, honey" she said, gently "Now why don't you try to get a short nap? It'll take another half an hour"

        "I'm not tired, mom" Steve said, folding his arms adamantly.

        "Why don't you do as your mother says? You might feel better afterwards" Leon suggested, not taking his eyes off the road. 

         "No…" he whined.

        Leon and Claire sighed. Their children were definitely stubborn, just like them. 

         "Okay" Claire said, looking at Leon and smiling. He smiled back "If you want; but don't come crying to me when you feel tired in the morning"

        Claire heard her son mutter something under his breath, and fall back in his seat. Claire also stared out of the window, into the dark forests beyond the highway. She saw the vegetation rush past, flashes of dark green foliage interrupted by lean, dark trunks of alpine trees.

          She didn't feel comfortable about coming here. Sure, they'd worked out hat it was all for the best…but Claire knew when something felt right and when it didn't, and she felt this now. Claire was desperately angry too; she'd been forgetting Umbrella had even existed for ten years, ten whole years and now they were back! But it was different now, there was even more at stake. She was married with two young children, and the knowledge Umbrella and Jill II was back, suddenly set her on an edge she wasn't sure she could be dragged back from in a hurry.

         Her warrior instincts were already returning, old instincts that were taking up home again, which she hadn't felt since that final night in Burkitt just over ten years ago. But no more revelations, no more devastating twists; if Umbrella wanted a war then a war was what they'd damned well get.

         "Honey…" Leon said, gently placing a hand on Claire's knee as they drove "…are you okay? You haven't talked at all, I was wondering if you were…mad?" 

         Claire smiled softly, and placed her hand on Leon's.

         "Of course not hon" she replied, gently "I'm just…scared, that's all"

     She looked back into the back seat, where Steve and Ada now dozed. They always did in the end.

         "We'll be back home in less than a week" Leon said "If all goes to plan; besides, Jill's not superhuman, we'd be able to take her on easily"

        "Let's just hope that she's taking the bait, coming here like this" Claire sighed. 

      "It's best it happens here in the middle of nowhere than in a busy town" Leon reassured her.

      "And was bringing our children such a good idea?" Claire continued "We could have sent them away to live with Sherry's Aunt Kate or something"

      "It is best…" Leon said, firmly so that Claire didn't start to drift off again, she looked at him, his eyes were fixed on hers "…that they be with us. We can protect them that way"

       Claire nodded, and lightly kissed Leon on the cheek as he turned back to the long strip of tarmac with no traffic ahead at all. The only other car was Chris and Jill's, and they followed not far behind. Leon looked down at the dashboard, and tapped a gauge.

        "Hmm. We're kinda low on gas, let's stop at the next gas station"

        "I'll phone Chris" Claire said, nodding and taking the mobile phone from its recharge slot behind the gear stick and pressing a few numbers "To tell him"

        It rang for only a second, before Chris picked up.

        "Claire?" he asked.

        "Yeah, look me and Leon are going to stop at a gas station to refuel, we're kinda low on juice"

         "Sure, we'll stop too; need a drink anyway" Chris replied, and Claire heard the tinny sounds of Hannah in the background, complaining about something, while Jill placated her. Claire nearly grinned. Sometimes, all she needed was a little family activity to make her cheer up dramatically.

         The gas station was on the near left, the light of the inside office made it glow with a warmth that seemed pleasantly beguiling in this area in the middle of nowhere. 

         Leon stopped the car, Chris and Jill stopping behind them and Sherry stopping behind them. 

         "I'll be back before you know it" Leon whispered, lightly squeezing Claire's knee before climbing out into the cool evening air.

      Leon stepped into the petrol station, and immediately felt relieved. This was because all the lights were on, and there was a man standing behind the desk, that there was one human at least in this area. 

   Leon sighed, with a little relief but also with uncertainty. The uncertainty came from the fact that the shop was empty of customers; but this probably amounted to the fact that the time was about ten-thirty at night, and that the only people who would be around at this time were drunkards or desperate hikers. Leon looked down; he felt a chill.  There were stains on the polished floor, black stains that showed up in the white light that illuminated the low building.

    Blood. It was long dried blood, so it could have been there from several days up to a month or two. But surely the man would have tried to clean it up? That didn't make sense. Leon turned and looked outside the window to the car, where Claire was sitting in the front. She caught his eye, and smiled encouragingly. 

      He smiled back. 

 Leon felt Chris jab him in the small of his back.

       "Come on" Chris said "You are gonna pay for your gas, right?"

       "Nah" Leon replied, as they walked up towards the counter "I thought I might just drive off with my stolen goods" 

       "Very funny" Chris sighed, with a grin plastered on his face. 

     They walked to the counter, checking dollar notes in their wallets. The man at the counter had a cigarette in his mouth, which Leon mildly disapproved of, but he looked cheerful nevertheless. Smoke slowly puffed from the end of it, and he stubbed it in a tray on the counter.

       "Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked, in a deep, hearty voice that vaguely reminded Chris of Barry.

       There was the sound of a car approaching outside. Probably Sherry, having caught up in her Corvette. She was always behind time, Leon reflected, she didn't know how not to be. Which would be a bit of a problem when she was going to _finally get a job…_

        "You know those things can kill you" Chris said, casually, gesturing at the smoldering cigarette stub. 

        Leon looked at Chris in bemusement.  

        "Coming from somebody who was a thirty-a-day man" Leon commented.

        "That was ten years ago" Chris pointed out "I'm different now"

        "It did take Jill to get you to give up" Leon replied "At least you kept your promise" 

        "I can't endanger Hannah's health by smoking" Chris said "Sometimes, I want to but I know I can't and I won't"

        "I only smoke to keep my nerves steady" the man at the counter observed, as he took their money "And that is only at night; You see, things have been happening around here, and…well…" 

        Chris and Leon froze. 'Things happening' before had always had a different connotation, usually for something that involved Umbrella. 

        "Things?" Chris said, in an Oscar-worthy performance as an ignorant tourist. 

        "You see that stain on the floor?" the proprietor said, waving at the black stain Leon had noticed earlier.

        They both looked.

         "Yeah" Chris said.

        "It's the blood of a hitch-hiker, who staggered in there the other day; he was torn up and looking like a horse bein' attacked by wolves, he bled all over the floor. There were two other people in here, I ran up to him to help him, he grabbed my lapels and yelled 'There's something out there! Something evil!' " 

       The man recalled this with a shiver, Leon felt a warm feeling of dread filter through his stomach to his throat.

      "We got him to a hospital, he'd been with three other guys he said later…and they were all killed"

      "I see…" Chris said, taking his receipt, looking thoughtful.

   Leon's mind raced. If they were staying…yes, they had weapons and plenty of ammo. They also had enough food for two weeks…at least they had enough to survive with. But Leon was beginning to have a horrible feeling about this. 

      "You staying here for long?" the proprietor asked.

      "A little while" Leon put in.

      "Where are ya staying?" he persisted. 

      "Near a place called Wolverine's creek" Leon admitted.

      "You should be okay there" the man said, smiling before it quickly disappeared "It's safe in and just around the town; but in the woods? It's untamed territory…and something bad's got into that forest…something real bad"

       "I think we'll be okay" Leon said, cheerfully "Come on Chris"

     They left, a little faster than was absolutely necessary.

       "Bad things, wounded hitchikers…" Chris murmured "…shit it's like the Arklay forest incident all over again"

       "…Except that this time" Leon said "…we got the kids. And what are the bets that Wolverine Creek's gone silent?" 

       "One to one" Chris replied "But we can't go back now; let's stay here for a few days, and then go home. It'll probably be better if we do"

       Leon nodded, reluctantly.

      They climbed into their vehicles. Steve and Ada were sound asleep, and Leon, now safely inside the warmth of the car turned to Claire.

       "I'm beginning to wonder if it was a good idea coming here at all" Leon said, quietly.

        "What are you saying?" Claire asked, a little confused.

        "Bizarre murder cases, dead hikers…ring a bell?" Leon persisted.

        Claire opened her mouth, and shut it again without saying anything.

         "…Please say it isn't true…" she murmured.

         "It's okay baby" Leon said, gently as he allowed her to settle her face into his shoulder, holding her close "I swear nothing will get near you or the children. Ever"

       The cabin looked like a typical wooden log cabin, but Claire and Leon knew otherwise. They'd come to visit it two months previously, when Steve and Ada had been to visit Rebecca for a weekend; Rebecca was a doctor now; true a _single doctor but she had the potential to be a great mother. Claire and Leon knew the log motif was a façade; inside, it was like a normal house, with a back garden that went down to the lake with a boathouse en-suite. It had cost a fair pile, but Leon and Claire were both very high earners; Leon being the Commander of the city SWAT team back home, with a 100% success rate, Claire a high-ranking manager in a reputable corporation therefore money was not an enormous issue for them._

       They pulled into the drive, basically just a dirt track, thirty minutes after leaving the petrol station. 

        "And here we are" Leon said, kissing Claire on the cheek.

        Claire smiled and lightly kissed her husband back, before turning to the back. 

        "Steve? Ada?" she said softly, almost musically.

  Steve and Ada stirred, blinking a little in the dim light.

      "Mm?" Steve and Ada mumbled, as they woke up. For a few moments, Claire and Leon admired their two children sitting in the back, before Ada broke the ice.

      "Mom, what are you staring at?" Ada asked.

      "Nothing honey" Claire replied tenderly, and opened the car door "You wanna help dad bring the bags in?"

       "Sure mom!" Steve exclaimed.

       Leon climbed out, and walked around to the back, where he pulled open the boot. Steve tried to take two bags, both of which were too heavy for him, but which in the end Leon had to help him with the one he ended up actually carrying. Chris was helping Hannah carry her luggage case, which she insisted she could carry, but which to Ada's giggling amusement, she couldn't in fact carry. 

        But soon, they were inside and the cool night shut out behind them.

      "Okay…" Chris said, cheerfully rubbing his hands together "…who says we get a good fire going, and we get some cocoa?"

      "YEAH!" Ada, Steve and Hannah said in unison. 

     Leon rolled his eyes.

      "Chris, you should cease asking stupid questions now" 

     Chris grinned, and shrugged.

   Ada sat next to her dad, head resting on his chest while Claire sat to her husband's left, Steve lying on her shoulder. Sherry sat slumped in the sofa, arms folded over her chest. The kids were sound asleep, half drunk mugs of cocoa lay abandoned on tabletops as they settled in for the night; Hannah lay curled up across Chris and Jill's laps, they stroked their daughter's hair tenderly.

     "What time is it?" Leon asked, yawning in the orange light of the fire that seemed to only fill the small area they were sitting in. 

     "'Bout…" Chris checked his watch "…midnight"

     "Why aren't we going to sleep then?" Leon asked.

     "It's…" Chris shrugged "…a hunch"

     "I don't feel too comfortable about leaving Steve or Ada alone" Claire admitted, even though she felt sleepy too.

     "That guy who ran the petrol station…he said there were killings in this area, didn't he?"

    "He did" Chris admitted "And I don't like that; one can't help feeling that we've just landed in an even bigger frying pan"

    "Yeah" Leon said "I think we should put the kids to bed, and then get out the weapons; I think I can see this being a long night"

     "Who's got any energy tablets?" Sherry asked, running hands down her face.

    "I think we can take it in turns on a one hour rota basis" Jill explained.

    "I'll go first" Chris said "Then Leon, then Jill, then Claire and then Sherry…until then, anybody who isn't on shift should get some sleep"

    "Damn" Leon muttered bemusedly, looking at Claire with a wry smile which, to his surprise she reflected directly back at him "You've got this sorted"

    "Always prepared Leon, always prepared" Chris replied, smirking a little "Come on you guys, put the kids to bed"

Night of the Living Dead 

Leon sat by the window out of the sitting room, looking out into the dark forest surrounding the cabin, and onto the dirt road that led to civilization. His shotgun was propped against his shoulder, Desert Eagle holstered but ready to be fired. Leon was still a good shot, hell he was the Commander of the SWAT teams back at home. But he couldn't help but feel scared. It was the fear that had driven mercilessly into him when he'd been in Raccoon City all those years ago, when he'd first stooped to check out that body in the road…and had heard the groans behind him. Zombies, shuffling zombies that had escaped his nightmares but would soon return. He felt his old survival instincts unfold themselves from their decade slumber, his senses sharp and acute as he sat in the semi darkness of the room, staring out into the moonlit grass that ended about thirty metres from the forest.

     Fog rolled in off the lake, it curled like smoke across the ground and licked at the walls of the cabin. Like _The Fog, he thought, something evil in the fog…he could sense it was lurking out there, that there was something lurking out there. _

     The moon was just out of sight, its slightly luminescent glow reflected off the rim of the window frame at the top. Leon checked the window. Solid, but hardly sufficient defense against…well, whatever it was. 

      Leon had only just come on duty, Jill had woken him after a short nap, and he'd taken the mantle of sentry. He watched, almost unblinkingly; because with the kinds of things he expected to see, if you even dared to blink for a moment you would die.

       He sighed, deeply. He felt himself becoming sleepy, and yawned, turning to look out of the window…when something flickered into his peripheral vision and was gone, disappearing like a shadow on a film reel that had slipped its sprockets.       

        "Shit…" Leon muttered, leaning forward to see if he could catch a glimpse of what he thought he'd seen. A blackish form, moving quickly and stealthily through the foliage. An ice-cold trickle of sweat started to slip down his forehead.

        His mind spun. Yes, he did know what to do; wake everybody else up? No, just one person will do…he ran into the next room where he saw Chris, Claire, Sherry and Jill asleep. Hannah, Ada and Steve lay in their own beds, around which the adults lay, like Lions ready to protect their young. He gently nudged Claire.

       Her pretty eyelids fluttered open slowly. 

      "Mm…Leon honey…are you going to work already?" she mumbled in half sleep. Leon squeezed her soft arm ever so softly. She blinked, and looked up at Leon; she immediately became concerned, his expression basically said her worst fears.

      "What's going on?" she whispered, climbing off the duvet that she'd collapsed on, and stretched her muscles.

      "Claire…" Leon said, quietly "…Claire, there's something out there."

      "Like what?" she asked quickly, now wide-awake and listening intently.

      "…I don't know" Leon replied "…but it's not human and it certainly isn't an ordinary animal"

      "Did you see it?" 

      "Well…no…"

      "How can you be sure?" Claire persisted, it was clear she was trying not to believe what Leon was trying to put across.

      "Believe me honey, I know…" Leon whispered "…you better come with me"

      Claire nodded, and pulled a shotgun from under the bed. They crept out towards the window, and looked into the darkness again. Claire gripped the shotgun tightly.

       "Are you sure it wasn't just a wolf or something?" she asked.

       "How many wolves do you know are in Washington state?" Leon replied, drolly. 

       "Okay, okay…" Claire sighed "…I was just trying to make my point"

       The surrounding foliage was sculpted by shadows and glistening moonlight, giving it an ethereal look, but one that was not entirely pleasant to them.

         "See anything?" Leon asked.

    Claire shook her head.

         "Nothing" she replied.   

        Then, in one terrible moment there was a crash of glass; in this single moment of sound, Claire and Leon turned with a knowing, numbing dread and dived into the kid's room. They looked on in horror, as they saw the shattered glass of the window spill onto the ground…and a Licker reared its head, and screeched a deafening cry that shattered their hopes and dreams. Chris and Jill were immediately awake, weapons already being drawn. Steve, Ada and Hannah were screaming, huddling against the bed-board in an attempt to back away from this hideous creature. 

      Steve stared. It was a monkey or a dog or something, but it couldn't be because it didn't have any skin. And the length of the tongue! It was immense! Steve saw that it had an exposed…he gulped in between his screaming…an exposed brain, with no eyes to speak of.

        Then he heard another cry. But this cry came from his father, a cry of anger that was a direct aggressive riposte to this hissing creature that had just torn through the glass like it was paper with its enormous, razor-like claws. 

         There was a gunshot, his dad fired a shotgun shell into the creature, which shrieked and recoiled, but struck out. He saw his mom hurl herself back, firing at the creature before his Aunt Jill fired two shots from a pistol that finally sent the thing sprawling, it thrashed around for a few moments, before its scream died and it stopped moving, blood pooling beneath its motionless corpse. 

        Leon breathed a sigh of relief.

          Ada and Steve ran to their parents, Hannah jumped into her father's arms and began to cry. Leon squeezed Ada, and felt her tears permeate the area halfway up his chest.

      "Sssh…" he said gently, as Claire did so with Steve; he was also crying "It'll be okay…"

      "W-wh-what was that thing?!" Hannah asked her mother, who was now taking her turn to hold her tightly "…it…w-w-w…"

      "A monster…I know" Jill replied, who looked up and cursed under her breath.

      "I-I-I-I was so scared!" Ada murmured, still holding onto her father. If anybody tried to prise her off, they would have had difficulty doing so with a tire iron.

      Steve was silent, but he was still in tears; he didn't say anything, Claire whispered words of comfort in his ear. 

      "They've done it" Chris said after a while "They've got to us; and now here we are"

     Suddenly, from outside…there was a grotesque chorus of low moans.        

      Leon closed his eyes. It had begun again. This time, Umbrella was back. And they meant business.


	4. Things to Come

**What Vengeance Really Means**

Jill's clone stood alone in the laboratory, supervising the machinery. She was thinking. Jill was not really thinking about the spinning steel gyroscope, gently warming up for its activation though occupy her thoughts it did. No, Jill was thinking about her originator. The woman from whom her own genetic material had been derived, the person whose template she shared. And it consumed her with absolute disgust; that the person who had killed her lover was 'her'. Jill had gotten over the repugnance of her genetic origin a long time ago, but this did not stop her determined vendetta against Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy. That pair, she thought bitterly, had continued their lives as if nothing had happened. They'd gotten married to other people, and had _children_. She had a son too, but the boy would have had a father had that group not gotten involved.

Jill's grief had reached a maddening level of hatred for those who had ruined her life, and she had elevated her lover to the level of a Jesus figure. Her son. The son of the son of a god.

Jill mused on her own unique position; soon, she would be exacting revenge. A natural course of action would be to kill their children, or kidnap them. However, Jill was not stupid. Umbrella had tried that once before, and had lost a great deal of research as a result. No, Jill needed to do something better. Jill's plan had initially seemed a little far fetched, but Jill knew that a standard 'kidnap, kill, destroy' using a new strain of virus or whatever was just stuff they would expect. Cliched and very much anticipated; they were resourceful, and as much as those Umbrella eggheads Spencer and Marcus had researched, they were eventually undone by their creations. Not to say that the viruses would not be useful; but it would take more than viral warfare this time. Umbrella was gone; what was left was her.

It wasn't simply Leon and Jill either, it was Chris and his sister Claire Redfield. Add to that Sherry, and Sherry who was no longer just some 'kid'. There were a number of them. It would take more than contrived assassinations to break them.

Her idea had been made possible by the theft of a number of pieces of technology and research, which had taken a few years. It had come together over time, but Jill had kept very level headed about it. The piece of equipment in front of her would be activated soon, and both Jill and her son would be affected by its influence. As would the elite commandos she had put together, but they would be going separately with any luck. She didn't like any of them, but they were single-minded killers which suited her purpose.

This plan would do what needed to be done; fragment them, divide them…which would prevent them from knowing what it was she was up to. This device would put a whole new set of constraints on them, ones that if broken could endanger their very existence.

She smiled to herself. The game would be entertaining.

"Mother."

Jill turned around to her son, who had just walked in through the doors behind her.

"Ah, my boy. What is Cranham's report?"

Leon, son of Leon, reached the control panels by the view window.

"He says we will be ready soon. He reports that our targets were last seen escaping down the Wolf Creek River, thanks to our distribution of the B.O.W's in the forests near that country retreat of theirs."

Jill nodded. It was going well.

"Anything else?"

"Only that it is all going to begin fifteen minutes earlier than planned, mother."

Jill frowned at this. The equipment was only just prototype, and didn't like the idea of Dr. William Cranham rushing it into action. He was a former Umbrella researcher, and those types were often making mistakes on idiotic levels like that.

"Tell him I want it beginning when it should begin; I want the settings checked, double and triple checked. This _cannot _go wrong. Do you understand, Leon?"

"Of course, mother."

Jill grasped her son fondly, looking up at his blue eyes as she stroked his reddish brown bangs.

"You're making mommy very proud." Jill said.

"I should hope so" Leon smiled "This will be your revenge for the death of father, will it not?"

Jill was proud of the way she had raised Leon.

"Now remember. We will be separate during this assignment; I want you to remember what I've taught you, and I also want you to remember – do _not _kill the other Leon and Claire."

Leon nodded.

"That would make things complicated, wouldn't it?" he said "Very well, I'll remember."

"We cannot interrupt the natural order of things" Jill said "Not to say I care about any of them, but it is our existences on the line if we fail to do so. Keep that in mind when you break into both of the facilities."

Leon nodded.

"Yes, mother." He paused "When will the shifts happen?"

"Ah, Cranham shall help you take care of that." Jill smiled "Until then, I want you to memorise precisely what it is you need to do. Hopefully our guests should be too preoccupied with their problems to bother stopping us."

Her revenge, she thought, would go further than simply killing them. She wanted them to suffer. She would split them up, put them through hell…and then…well. Jill smiled again, and kissed her son on the head.

_My son will have his father back_.

"I think it's time for your speech" Leon Junior said, a smirk surfing across his lean face "It's going to be killer."

Jill laughed.

"Oh. It most certainly _is_"

She turned and walked out of the room, and made her way towards the helipad.

_Absolutely killer_.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Leon paced the boat deck.

"I don't like this" he muttered "Why would they chase us onto the river, and then let us go practically unhindered? I haven't seen a movement out of our friends since that helicopter stunt."

Leon found it bad enough that Umbrella still existed in some shape or form, without finding out whoever was behind this had targeted him personally…and what was more worrying was the fact they had targeted the children. This meant that whoever was watching them knew they both had children and where they would take them. Logically therefore it was pretty much obvious that their escape was being engineered. He looked over the faces of all the assembled, with only Sherry looking at him and casting a hopeful smile his way before looking back down at the soles of her shoes. His sister, Sherry, sat towards the back of the boat refusing to look at anyone. A small band of ex-heroes and children, on the run from god knows what.

Steve sat glumly on the side of the boat, looking up at his father. His father was the toughest guy in the world, why should he be worried? Ada seemed similarly forlorn, playing with her shoelaces while Hannah slept uncomfortably against her mother. Jill stroked Hannah's hair, and watched as the dark hills slid by in the night. Chris piloted the boat, desperately contemplating what it was they were going to do next. The last time he had had to save his family was on Rockfort Island, and that had been nearly sixteen years ago – not that Chris doubted his own abilities, but now he had three family members to keep an eye out for. While Claire did not need watching so much anymore, and Jill could very much take care of herself, Hannah was still only young. A child. Chris had never been so scared about protecting the innocent before.

In the bathroom, Claire was wiping tears from her eyes. Not tears of sorrow or despair, but tears of anger. Claire wiped them away bitterly, trying desperately to force herself to stop. She could not show weakness. She simply could not. Claire's anger, already at boiling point, was starting to bubble over. Claire clenched her fist, ready to put it through the mirror, to fracture the image staring back at her.

_Why now?_ She thought _of all the times Umbrella, or who the hell they are, choose to show up…its now._ Claire had a family now, two beautiful children and a loving husband. As they had watched Steve and Ada grow, Claire and Leon had agreed to never tell them the circumstances of their conception, never to tell them what had happened shortly after they were born, or what it was that had brought their parents together in the first place. They couldn't and shouldn't know. Except that now, they would. They would see the lie for what it was. Claire reached into the cabinet above the sink, and retrieved a bottle of pills. It was a bottle of relaxants she had stowed in the case of having a stress attack, or bad dream. Which she often had. Claire briefly contemplated taking one, to calm down. However, Claire quickly vetoed this. How could she be expected to concentrate on looking after her children if her brain was dying a happy sedative based death? She put the bottle away, and tried to calm down.

So many thoughts, so many people. As bad as things were now, none of them were to know that things were going to get worse. A hell of a lot worse.

Chris peered into the water ahead of them, illuminated by the lights of the boat. The horizon was dark, and they seemed alone on this stretch of water as the boat sped past ever higher growing hills. Spray hit the lights, creating a strange temporary rainbow as the water refracted the halogens, before quickly disappearing. All seemed quiet.

It was therefore a massive shock to everyone when the radio growled into life with a sound like spitting fire. Then, a voice said

"Leon S. Kennedy, pick up the radio."

Leon, eyeing the device cautiously, picked it up. For a few moments he stared at it, and listened to the white noise emanating from it.

He looked at Jill.

"Do you think I should take this call?"

Jill looked back at him, face blank.

"It's probably a bad idea." She said "It's probably from the person who set us up."

Leon considered this, and clicked the transmitter.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Ada looked up at Leon, and wondered why her dad looked so worried. Okay, so she'd been freaked out by those things back there…but her parents had dealt with them okay. She'd never realised how cool her parents were! They'd kicked their asses and had barely batted an eyelid. Ada had known her dad worked for the government in some sort of capacity, but she didn't know he was a _monster hunter_. She'd never really idolised her parents in the way some kids did, but now they were just the coolest of the coolest. So why was he looking so worried? Steve nudged Ada.

"D'you think mom and dad will kick ass again?" he said, voice brimming with excitement.

Jill gave Steve a sour look.

"If you use language like that, I'm sure they'll do some _kind _of kicking. Now sit down before I tell your mother."

Steve began to sulk again. Ada stuck her tongue out at him, a gesture that he reciprocated in kind. She quickly turned back to her dad, so she didn't miss anything.

"Guys…" Sherry shook her head softly "Just drop it."

Sherry sat up from her slumped seating position.

Ada watched as the radio crackled out a reply.

"Turn your boat into the bay around the Devil's Rock. We wish to speak to you."

"Do I get a choice in the matter?"

"I don't think this is about choice." The voice said, before cutting the radio off.

Leon put the radio down. Claire emerged from the lower decks of the boat, and saw Leon's contemplative expression.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I think Leon wants to walk straight into a trap." Jill replied.

"I did not say…" Leon snapped "…that I was going to do it."

"Trap?" Claire's brow furrowed "We're walking into a trap?"

"Well, driving really" Chris answered from the cockpit "But it's Leon's call, really. I can't see what we'll earn by running, they'll just send more creatures after us if they know exactly where we are."

"I don't want them to take the kids" Leon said firmly "But we need to find out why there's a T-Virus outbreak in the woods here, now."

"Got any ideas?" Claire asked.

Leon mulled it over.

The soldiers on the pier locked and loaded their weapons as the motorboat curved around Devil's Rock in a shower of spray and headed straight for the bank of the river. It was a small pier, mainly for fishing, but also had once been a secret supply depot for Umbrella when the company had still existed. Umbrella was dead. Long live Umbrella.

Jill's clone stood behind one of the soldiers, determined to mine this meeting for all the drama she could. She couldn't help but smirk. She was a sucker for drama.

"The boat is approaching, ma'am." The large, gruff sergeant said to her "Do you wish us to fire?"

"No." Jill said "I don't want a single shot being fired. This is merely intimidation. I just need them in the same place for two minutes."

The sergeant nodded, and walked away. Jill flexed her hands. Soon the game would begin proper, and she was relishing it. In her pocket sat the device that would see her through; a device that had been customised over the last few years to ensure it would work by some of the finest scientists and the best stolen research she could find.

The boat was getting closer, and she could hear its motor slowing as the boat began to pull up along the pier. On the boat, Leon checked his Desert Eagle, and nodded at Claire, who knelt down in front of Steve and Ada.

"Okay guys, we want you to go into our cabin okay? Don't come out until we come to get you."

"Why can't we stay up here with you?" Ada asked.

"It might get dangerous." Claire said, not without justification "And I don't want you anywhere near the danger. Now go down there and stay. Hannah's coming with you anyway."

"But mom-"

"Now!" Claire snapped.

Claire shooed them towards the stairs. Steve and Ada slumped down the wooden stairs into Claire and Leon's cabin, and plopped themselves down on the double bed.

"It's not fair" Steve complained "We never get to see any fun."

"Stop whining" Ada said, "Mom and dad are just trying to look out for us."

"Get stuffed" Steve muttered.

The handle of the door twisted, and in walked Hannah.

"Dad told me to come down here with you." She said "What's going on up there?"

"I saw Dad get his gun out." Steve cut in "He never does that in front of us."

Hannah paced the floor, obviously worried.

"Mom and dad might get hurt." She said, quietly.

"Naah." Steve waved a hand "Mom and dad are tough, and so are your mom and dad! They've got Sherry to look after them if they get hurt, 'n Sherry can come and warn us if something happens…" his voice trailed off.

Ada and Hannah remained silent.

Sherry looked at the line of soldiers, and gulped. She had seen monsters before, but at least they had limited attack patterns and were fairly predictable. These were highly trained soldiers, all with itchy trigger fingers and loaded assault rifles. They would have to negotiate extremely carefully.

The air was cold, and she shivered.

"This could end badly" Sherry muttered to herself, as she watched Chris loading his assault shotgun, the one he always kept to one side in case of emergencies. Well, this definitely counted as an emergency. She looked across to Jill and Claire, practically imploring them for a weapon. Despite her insistence she could use guns, Claire and Leon were not happy about her using them in any capacity.

Claire and Leon stepped forward, ready to talk.

"Okay." He called out "Who the hell are you and why are we here?"

A soldier, slightly differently decorated to the others, stepped out of line. He was clearly their leader, of some description.

"Put down your weapons." He ordered.

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"And put away the only thing that protects us from you? Uh, no, I don't think so. What guarantee do we have you won't shoot us on the spot?"

"Because…" an eerily familiar voice said, stepping out from behind the line of soldiers to take pride of place at the head of the soldiers "…I could just order them to shoot you here, but it'd be kind of easy don't you think? If I had wanted to kill you myself I could have hunted you down a long time ago."

There was an appalled silence. Jill's clone looked over her astonished audience, whose emotions were wrestling between abject hatred and pure horror.

"You…" Jill breathed, voice enraged "…How did you survive Burkitt?"

"I escaped on the back of a giant eagle." Jill's clone replied coyly "Does it really matter?"

Leon glared at her.

"Just had to, didn't you? Get yourself involved in our lives again?"

"Well, yes" Jill's clone replied "Even though Umbrella's gone, I'm still here. And seeing how you murdered my one true love…well. Not easily forgiven, that kind of thing."

"'Your one true love'?" Claire laughed "You haven't got any idea what love is"

"It's dedication. It's obsession. It's understanding. It's pleasure. It's everything. That is what he gave me" Jill's clone said, all the playfulness quickly disappearing from her voice "And you took him from me. It's taken me a long time to devise a punishment, and it does not involve hot lead."

She walked up and down the pier in slow paced strides.

"I could have killed your children…no, too easy. Again, I could have killed you…but once I had murdered you one by one, what then? Where to go? Vengeance is not easily sated."

She turned to them, sneering.

"You deserve far more than death."

Leon was quite enjoying this rant.

"So…you want to kill us twice?"

Jill smiled, and looked at her watch.

"No. By the way, you have…one minute, so if I were you, you'd better ask any questions you have. Before you all get separated and never see each other again, of course."

Leon frowned, trying not to appear worried.

"Marching us off to death camps or something?"

Jill considered this guess.

"Possibly." She decided after a while "If you end up where I want you."

_End up where she wants us?_ Claire and Leon exchanged a worried look, while Chris and Jill did very much the same thing. All the while, Steve, Ada and Hannah were sitting down below oblivious of what was happening. Leon realised he was starting to sweat.

Jill's clone checked her watched again.

"Twenty seconds."

Suddenly, there was a sound from the back of the boat, and then Steve, Ada and Hannah ran onto the deck.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sherry gaped.

"Go back below, now!" Chris snapped.

Jill's clone, at first a little uncertain about what had just happened, began to smile. So, these were the little tykes.

"No, do let them stay." She said "This might be quite amusing."

Steve and Ada threw their arms around Leon and Claire.

"We're sorry!" Steve pleaded "But we got scared!"

"Why didn't you stay downstairs?" Leon said, holding his daughter to him "For god's sake…"

Jill's clone again looked at her watch.

"Zero hour" she said, with a grin "Time to say goodbye."

"Zero hour?" Leon whispered to Claire.

That was when it happened. The world seemed to implode around them, and Leon was aware of Steve and Ada screaming as the air swirled in a tornado of light and sound around him. It was like being pounded in the face with a thousand pounds of air pressure.

"Claire…!" Leon screamed out against the gale, despite the sensation of his jaw being ground into his cheekbones.

"I'm here, Leon!" Claire screamed back, reaching towards her husband in an attempt to grab onto his hand, to prevent herself from losing him yet again. No, not again, not again…

She gripped onto Steve tightly as she reached out for her husband…but became aware that his hand was fading from sight in front of her, and to her horror, Leon and Ada began to fade in the maelstrom of light around them.

"No!" Claire screamed as Leon's screaming face disappeared altogether, Ada's own small form following quickly in a rush of light. Claire felt her whole world give, and just as she felt her heart begin to die, there was a crash of incandescence…and then nothing.

**Past Imperfect**

Chris slowly awoke. He felt very groggy. In the last moments of that bizarre explosion of light and sound, he'd felt Hannah hold onto his leg while Jill had grasped onto his arm and he'd tried to shield them both from the light. Not that it had done anything. Chris ached from head to foot, and it was just as well that he was lying on a bed because otherwise…

_A bed_?

He sat up, slowly. He was in a small, dimly lit room. By the wall was a cabinet, and what seemed to be shelves of medical jars and chemicals lined up in ordered rows.

"Chris?"

Chris looked to his left. Sitting in the corner, Hannah unconscious in her arms, was Jill. He exhaled. At least they were okay…but where were the others?

"Jill." He said, relieved "You're okay. Thank god."

Jill looked around the room.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Hard to say." Chris replied, even though there was a smell in the air that he found unerringly familiar and the wall-paper was a disarming shade of greyish green that he knew he had found repugnant once before but couldn't quite remember when. Why did this room seem so annoyingly familiar?

He slowly stood up, stretching his legs. Spying a calendar on the wall, Chris could see that the date was marked down as being 'May 6th'. That was wrong for a start, it was nearly halfway through July. He didn't like what his thought process was implying. Chris had never described himself as the world's greatest thinker, but he knew what was right and what wasn't. He was also relatively bright, and currently that part of his brain that was very bright was niggling away, telling him something was extremely wrong but he could not work out what it was.

Maybe they'd been knocked unconscious, and they had been taken prisoner. It was a funny sort of prison cell though, Chris thought, with a wooden door and medical supplies sitting in an open drawer by the foot of the bed. Chris walked over to the cabinet, and looked at the medical bottles.

Jill, gently laying Hannah down on the floor, stood up and joined her husband.

"What's going on?" Jill said, and looked at the bottles. She frowned, a little unsettled "Those bottles have Umbrella logos on them."

"Who'd keep hold of Umbrella pharmaceuticals?" Chris asked, perplexed "A very weird collector?"

"This room…" Jill said, looking around before her eyes settled on the bed Chris had woken up on "…that bed. It's too familiar. What is this place?"

Jill's eyes finally fell on a photograph that sat beside an old typewriter beside the bed. Jill went over to it, and picked it up. It was a new photo. On it, was a smiling group of men and women, who on a beautifully sunny day, were posing in front of the main doors of a large mansion. Jill froze. The mansion doors. She had seen them before. Once, when she had been running headlong through long grass escaping from an unseen foe…almost twenty years ago.

She yanked the photo out of its frame, desperately trying to find some means of forgery. Something was hand-scribbled on the back of the photograph:

'Dear Henry

Congratulations on your promotion to the Arklay Research Team!

Love and kisses, from Tess.

January 1998'

The Arklay research team.

Suddenly, Jill realised where she was. She desperately tried not to panic, even as her mind ruled out the solution as completely impossible. But she remembered the room, remembered having woken up in this room after Barry had treated her with anti-venom. It was like her worst nightmare come true.

"Chris…" Jill murmured "…I know where we are."

"I think I'm beginning to get it too." Chris replied, gravely "Check out the year on this calendar."

Jill turned towards where Chris was holding open the calendar. It was a calendar for the year 1998. The mansion had been destroyed, though. She'd watched it go up in a huge ball of flame. Which spelled out only one impossible scenario, which Chris spelled out for her.

"We're back in the mansion aren't we?" he asked, voice thick with depression "May 1998, before the frigging mansion blew up. Before we even arrived."

To be continued…

Author's Note: Yeah, I know it's been 5 years since I updated this story, so you may have noticed a few improvements in my writing style. I think it's important to mention that I have kind of taken the events of Resi 4 into consideration, but as far as I'm concerned, Umbrella still exist in an unofficial capacity. Also, the slightly left-field twist is the result of months of deciding how the hell to continue the story. I didn't really want to do another adventure a-la the Umbrella Chronicles simply because I felt I'd exhausted the new virus/city in ruins theme. It's also a fun way to revisit the first couple of games in the series, hehe..


	5. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Author's Note: For those unaware, I have taken certain liberties with the future lives of the Resident Evil cast. In a previous batch of stories I wrote called 'The Umbrella Chronicles', in Episode I Leon discovered Sherry was his sister and William Birkin was his father (he was their child when they were very young at college, explaining the age gap, and he was given away). In the final epuside of the series he discovered he also had a twin – Jill Valentine. His affection for Claire turned into romance, and he got her pregnant. They got married and had two children, Steve and Ada. Chris and Jill also eventually got married and had one child, Hannah. The series ended with them escaping from the town of Burkitt, which contained the last vestiges of White Umbrella, and the whole place was vaporised. So, for ten years things were able to return to normal. The thing was, Leon and Jill were cloned by Umbrella while they had been in deep freeze in the early stages of their life. Their clones, whom they met, were bitter, twisted, practically insane and shared a deeply unhealthy relationship. Leon's clone was killed by Leon, but Jill's clone managed to escape, taking with her a few items and the last words of her lover. Ada, the grown up version, was killed in Episode II of the Umbrella Chronicles, although she ultimately saved his life when she realised that Leon had cared for her enough to name his daughter after her. Ada lives on, through Leon's own daughter. Steve Burnside also did not come back, partly because I don't really like the character but also because of Leon and Claire getting married – though I may have him turn up for a while in Millennium Chronicles because I think it would be interesting to see how he reacts to Claire having had Leon's children…but he will get an equal presentation. I don't do character bashing.

I have written this chapter simply because I don't want people to have to have read the entirety of the Umbrella Chronicles to be able to enjoy my story.

EDIT: I also felt it is worth clarifying something – the reasons for the names of the children of Leon and Claire. Remember this: I am a Claire/Leon fan, always have been, always will. It just seemed logical to me that they wanted something good to come out of two people who met such horrible ends, and whom they got on with – and thus named their children after them. Regardless of your view of Ada and Steve, there was clearly a connection. The Leon/Claire romance IS the core of the story. Remember, these are the kids of Leon and Claire, not the characters themselves. You may find it weird I need to mention all of this, but this story has not been updated in a long time, and it is part of a continuity I invented five/six years ago!


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